Burden of Bipolar DepressionImpact of Disorder and Medications on Quality of Life

Bipolar disorder is a complex, chronic psychiatric condition characterized by recurring episodes of depressive illness and mania or hypomania. Although the manic or hypomanic episodes define the disorder, recent research has shown that depressive symptoms predominate over manic symptoms in the majority of patients, and that bipolar depression accounts for much of the significant morbidity and mortality associated with bipolar disorder. Given these findings, there has been a recent upsurge of interest in furthering our understanding of the burden of depression in bipolar disorder. At the same time, increasing scientific attention is now being paid to expanding the measurement of outcome in bipolar disorder to encompass broader indicators of response, one of which is the assessment of quality of life (QOL).